COLUMBUS, Ohio — Norfolk Southern (NS) is nearing the finish line on a major expansion of its Rickenbacker Intermodal Facility in central Ohio, boosting the terminal’s overall operational capacity to roughly 410,000 lifts per year.
The multi-phase development project—which has seen more than $30 million in capital investments from the rail provider since the facility first opened in 2008—is designed to relieve operational bottlenecks, expand support yard capacity, and improve ramp performance across international supply lines.
Located just south of Columbus near Pickaway and Franklin counties, the Rickenbacker terminal serves as a central logistics hub connecting regional commerce to global maritime ports on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Key milestones of the expansion include:
Massive Capacity Growth: Pad track capacity has increased by 70% compared to the terminal’s original footprint. Modeled capacity is rising from 250,000 annual lifts in 2008 to 410,000 upon final completion.
High Volume Handling: In 2025 alone, the Rickenbacker facility logged 335,607 verified container and trailer lifts.
Support Yard Enhancements: The latest phase adds additional track and storage space for staging containers, with full support yard operations scheduled to come online late this summer.
“Rickenbacker’s growth has been intentional — we invest ahead of the constraint, not after it,” said Ryan Hegarty, Senior Director of Infrastructure, Capacity & Efficiency at Norfolk Southern. “With this latest expansion, we are adding support capacity, improving ramp performance, and creating more flexibility for customers moving through one of our most important inland gateways.”
The regional location allows distributors and manufacturers within the central Ohio market to reach a significant portion of the U.S. population within a single day’s drive, providing a strategic inland point for managing port congestion, shipping costs, and shifting supply chains.
